drno62 — 5 months ago(October 27, 2025 10:47 AM)

When Gordie goes to buy the hamburger and Cokes, the shop owner mentions he lost a brother in Korea. Like… how? The film is set in 1959. The Korean War was 1950-1953, 6 to 9 years earlier. The shop owner was played by Bruce Kirby who was 60 during filming. So, the shop owner was 51 to 54 when his brother died in Korea? Would have made more sense to have him say he lost a son in Korea. Or since he would've been born in 1899, he should have lost a brother in the First World War, which the US was involved in from 1917 to 1918 making the shop owner 18 to 19 at the time when his brother died.
Now if we're talking about the actors and not the characters, then actor Bruce Kirby was born in 1925, making him 25 to 28 during the Korean War. So, if actor Bruce Kirby lost a brother in Korea, that would make sense for a 60-year-old actor in 1985, the year they made the movie. But a 60-year-old shop owner in 1959 losing a brother in Korea makes little sense, unless his brother was a middle-aged high ranking Colonel or something. Feels like a scripting mistake or something, like the writer wrote that line thinking in contemporary times (1985) and not from the perspective of the characters in the 1950s.
The scene if you need to refresh your memory: